It is a sweltering Sunday evening in tropical Far North Queensland in late September of 2001 and the streets of Cairns are flooded with thirsty tourists.
Inside one heaving pub – two park footy players from down south sit at the bar – their eyes glued to the television screen… probably.
A hand on their ice-cold schooners of XXXX.
Three English backpackers, heavily sunburnt and sloppier than a soup sandwich, squeeze in beside them and order another round of beers.
“Is tharttt the rooogby gran’ finool?” one points at the screen.
“That’s Joooey Joons!”
“He’s smashin’ ‘em!”
Newcastle is over for another try and it’s orchestrated again by the legendary number 7 – Andrew Johns.
Runaway minor premiers Parramatta have no answer to the Johns onslaught.
The two men, in their early twenties, mutter something to each other and are in agreeance.
They are future Eels coach Brad Arthur and the current Knights boss Adam O’Brien.
It’s been 24 years since that fateful night for the Knights and they have never been back to the first Sunday in October for another shot at premiership glory -the fourth longest premiership drought of all teams.
This might explain some of the reasoning behind O’Brien and the Knights splurging an NRL record $14million and a ten-year contract for Parramatta’s Kiwi International, Dylan Brown.
It may just keep current superstar and captain Kalyn Ponga at the club post his current deal ending in 2027.
Might even attract a big-name halfback to fill that elusive 7 jersey that’s still haunted by an Immortal.
Phil Gould defended the decision from the Knights, suggesting on Channel Nine’s 100% Footy on Monday night, that if Canterbury never signed Matt Burton, they would have never attracted Viliame Kikau or Stephen Crichton among others.
The most intriguing part in all of this is, this $14million power play, it isn’t the end game for Newcastle.
It’s the play for the play.
To get the halfback.
The Hail Mary to set up the Hail Mary.
By the time Johns was forced to retire due a neck injury in 2007, the Knights were a spent force.
It’s been more than a long time between drinks for Newcastle and O’Brien and front office know it.
Brian Smith’s years when the club turned away from developing their own local talent and started with Johns retiring and the Kirk Reynoldson contract scandal at the end of 2007.
Reynoldson – captain of the side in round 13 – returned from injury on the bench in round 19.
The cult hero just needed to play three more games to activate a $200,000 clause in his contract for 2008.
Smith played him from the bench in two more games before refusing to pick him – saving the club and ripping Reynoldson off in the process.
The Nathan Tinkler era.
Wayne Bennett’s “Dad’s Army” that missed the finals in two of the three years he was there.
When Bennett quit the Knights to go back to Brisbane he took a swipe at the Novocastrians, saying: “there’s always been drama around the place”.
Three consecutive wooden spoons.
Then there was a club sale, some Nathan Brown and a little bit of Mitchell Pearce.
But with O’Brien and Ponga – the numbers say the Knights are improving.
They are moving forward.
The Knights have played finals footy four of the last five years.
Newcastle is trending up but becoming a top four contender, consistently, is becoming increasingly tougher.
Maybe it costs $14million to set a new course?
For that halfback.
The guy that slides in between Ponga and Brown.
Lucky number 7.
The Knights are all in.